Veee – given name, Gyula Visnyei -- was an 18-year-old star on the Hungarian Under-21 National Team in 1969 when the then-Communist country sent its squad on a soccer tour of Italy. Secret police accompanied the team to prevent any thought of defection.

As he would be for the rest of his soccer career, much of it spent with the San Diego Sockers, Veee would have a mind of his own, and he would not easily be contained. Helped by American acquaintances, Veee escaped the team, got on a bus in his red Hungarian warm-up suit and never looked back.

“What did freedom taste like?” Veee was asked years later.

“Bananas and Coca-Cola,” he said. He’d never tasted either.

America was the land of “milk and honey” in Veee’s mind. He loved its literature and its movies. His adopted country, and particularly San Diego, would come to have an extraordinary affection for Veee, who could make a soccer ball dance like few others.

There was no player more flamboyant either. In the Sockers’ fog-filled introductions of the 1980s, the large crowds at the San Diego Sports Arena would rise to their feet at the announcement of “Double-Deuce, Triple-E, the one and only Juli Veee!”

When No. 22 scored a goal, he raised his arms in the shape of a “V” to celebrate. There would be hundreds of those occasions.

One of former coach Ron Newman’s favorite stories is about a time Veee had to make a court appearance. The judge asked him what he did for a living.

Ron Newman, right, gets a kiss from from former player Juli Veee.— Charlie Neuman

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Ron Newman, right, gets a kiss from from former player Juli Veee.
— Charlie Neuman

With 10 championships in an 11-year span, the original Sockers are the greatest team to ever play indoor soccer, and Veee is their most memorable character. In leading San Diego to five titles, he holds many of the team’s scoring records from the time. He retired in 1988.

Now 63 and coaching for the San Diego Soccer Club, Veee once said of playing for the Sockers, “We had our slumps here and there, but the fans stuck with us. It was like a marriage. It was a magical time.”

Juli Veee file

Given name: Gyula Visneyi

Born: Feb. 22, 1950 (Budapest, Hungary)

San Diego impact: Forward, San Diego Sockers, 1978-84, 1985-88

Achievements: Offensive leader on Sockers teams that won five indoor championships. Veee finished his San Diego career with 254 goals and 214 assists, and at the time of his retirement in 1988 he held more than 20 of the team’s scoring records. Among them: most goals in a game (6, twice); most consecutive games scoring a goal (37); most assists in a game (5); most career playoff points (122).

Did you know? After retiring, Veee immersed himself in painting. He produced hundreds of works and was commissioned to do a portrait of former California Governor and San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson.